Ilford North MP Wes Streeting called on the home secretary to increase resources available to the police following a spate of stabbings in Ilford, Gants Hill and Harold Hill.

Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday (Monday, March 4), Mr Streeting thanked emergency services for their vital work, but told the home secretary that the “legs have been taken out of community policing by police cuts.”

“Our community is reeling from the murder of 20-year-old Che Morrison, stabbed to death outside Ilford station last Tuesday, the stabbings on Woodford Avenue on Thursday that left one teenager lucky to be alive, and the murder of Harold Hill teenager Jodie Chesney a day later,” he said after the debate.

“There are many facets to tackling knife crime, and all of them have one thing in common,” he said.

“That is that the policies of this government for the last nine years have made it harder not easier to tackle this crisis.”

Mr Streeting said that the prime minister is “deluded” if she thinks there is no link between falling police numbers and rising crime.

He cited a Channel 4 Despatches programme which revealed that the number of 16 year olds and under being treated for stab wounds in England has risen by 93per cent in the last five years.

In the same programme, former Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe called for 20,000 new police officers to be recruited to make up for lost officers.

“We desperately need more police officers to tackle the growing pressures of crime - not least knife crime,” he added.

“I am deeply shocked by the recent stabbings that have occurred in our borough, and angry that government policies are making tackling the situation harder, not easier. I will continue challenging Ministers at every available opportunity until they show the leadership that’s required.”

Mr Streeting had launched a petition to halt police cuts which has so far has more than 1,500 signatories.